Leadership Briefings

Issue LB.65

Revised school admissions and appeals codes have been published following a 12-week consultation on proposals to overhaul the current system. The existing codes were too complex, confusing and unfair for parents. They undermined parental choice and rationed places at good schools. The revised codes contain half as many of the 650 existing mandatory requirements placed on admissions authorities.

This report summarises the findings that have resulted from a wide-ranging public consultation on the draft School Admissions Code and draft School Admission Appeals Code, held between 27 May and 19 August 2011.

The Safeguarding Children Research Initiative is an important element in the government response to the Inquiry following the death of Victoria Climbié. Its purpose is to provide a stronger evidence base for the development of policy and practice to improve the protection of children in England. This research provides an overview of the key messages from 15 studies, commissioned as part of the Safeguarding Children Research Initiative, distilled to meet the needs of those professionals who seek to utilise such research findings to shape their day-to-day work.

This report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies presents forecasts of relative and absolute income poverty in the UK among children and working-age adults for each year between 2010-11 and 2015-16, and for 2020-21. The results should provide a useful guide to what might happen to poverty under current government policies.

The Agency Workers Regulations came into force on 1 October 2011 and aim to ensure equal treatment between agency staff and the hirer's permanent employees who work in comparable roles. This equal treatment breaks down into two key elements; those which apply from day one and those which the Agency Worker qualifies for after 12 weeks on assignment in the same with the Hirer. With Schools, these rights will most probably impact on supply teaching staff. So what does this actually mean?

This Department of Education study investigated the hypothesis that offering vocational options in Year 10 can help improve levels of educational engagement and subsequent outcomes among young people disengaged from education. Previous research has suggested that offering a broader curriculum, and in particular, vocational qualifications, may be a way to motivate young people who have become disengaged from education and improve their subsequent attainment.

This report is produced as part of a research partnership between The Work Foundation and the Private Equity Foundation. The report examines NEET rates for 16 – 24 year olds across Great Britain and identifies a group of blackspots for the problem and argues that without effective, targeted action from government and business, a generation of young people in these cities will face a bleak future in the labour market. The report focuses on the 53 largest towns and cities in Great Britain.

The Government has published its implementation plan for teacher training strategy to train the next generation of outstanding teachers. Around 100 scholarships worth £20,000 each will be available every year for graduates with a 2:1 or first class degree who are intending to do a mainstream physics, or physics with maths, Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course.

This survey, commissioned by Polycom, found that videoconferencing is the second most desirable way for school teachers to communicate with parents, students and colleagues - with the most desirable interaction being physically in the same room meeting face-to-face.

The aim of this Department for Education paper is to present the statistical information on the difference in final grades between those that do and do not enter for GCSEs early and therefore raise awareness of the potential impacts associated with early entry that should be taken into consideration when deciding whether to enter a pupil early for their GCSE examination(s).

This IPPR report brings together key international experts, industry professionals and policymakers in an attempt to set out a policy agenda that explores how to strengthen the role of apprenticeships in society and the economy, how to create more and better apprenticeships, and what an institutional framework for flourishing apprenticeships would look like.

Parents are reading to their children more, according to this survey, carried out by pollsters Opinion Matters, and commissioned by the publishers Pearson and the reading charity Booktrust who sponsor the Booktime programme. The survey of 1,000 parents of four-to-six-year-olds reveals that parents spend on average one hour and 26 minutes reading with their children each week, up from one hour 18 minutes in 2009.

The Cultural Learning Alliance believes that the arts and heritage have the power to transform young people’s lives. This document sets out how, and why. It argues that the knowledge, skills and experience made possible by the performing and visual arts, by museums, libraries, archives, and by heritage organisations are essential to young people’s development.

In line with Professor Wolf’s recommendations, only qualifications which are high quality, rigorous and enable progression to a range of study and employment opportunities will be recognised in school performance tables for 14-16 year olds from 2014. This DfE consultation document provides further information and the proposed new guidelines which come into force in 2014.

Schools and parents should be aware of the potential harm done to young people when they experience bullying through ‘being left out’, according to this research, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Children in school years 7 to 13 (aged 11 to 18) were asked questions about the types of bullying they had experienced over the last 12 months and why they think they may have been bullied.

Academies and those running them are being warned that they could be held directly responsible for any legal liabilities that arise as a result of online threats to pupils. In this White Paper by web security experts, Smoothwall, Dr. Brian Bandey discusses the overall threat Landscape that e-Safety Law produces for the Academy and identifies the different laws that apply when the Academy provides pupils with access to ICT, especially in the context of pupil misuse of it.

Ofsted's Annual Report presents the findings of inspection and regulatory visits made during the previous inspection year. It assesses the quality and standards found across the full range of Ofsted's work, including care, early education, schools, colleges, adult learning and skills, and children’s services.